Little summary: Gaulish was a celtic language located in the actual France, Belgium, Switzerland, and Northern-Italia.
Contrary to many opinions on the Gaulish, it wasn’t an apparently unpronounceable and very cacophonous language in writing as the celtic Welsh or some Germanic languages.
Niente! The Gaulish is a language which looks like the Latin, still Greek or something like that.As Gaulish was quite similar to Latin it was quickly assimilated as early as the last centuries B.C. within this very large language area. Popular Latin borrowed many words from Gaulish. Their language system is what is called "Classical Celtic": it was very close to the Italic group of tongues, and Julius Caesar even had to write his letters to his legates in Greek for Gaulish leaders not to be able to read them if they might happen to gain hold of these missives. He did so because Latin could be understood by Celts quite well without having had to study it.
Example, the word “king” between Gaulish and Latin is quasi-similar latin “rex”, Gaulish “rix” (the name of Vercingetorix the unique united Gallia chief means “ver-…-rix”= over-king, “Cingetos” warriors= The highest king of Warriors.
Phonologically, the Gaulish language looked like almost completely to Latin.
• Vowels:
o short: a, e, i, o u
o long: ā, ē, ī, (ō), ū
o diphthongs: ai, ei, oi, au, eu, ou
• Semivowels: w (“v” pronounced /w/ as Latin), y
• Occlusives:
o voiceless: p, t, k
o voiced: b, d, g
• Resonants
o nasals: m, n
o liquids r, l
• Sibilant: s
• Affricate: ts
Grammatically too, Gaulish has many noun cases: Nominative, Vocative, Accusative, Genitive, Dative, Instrumental, and Locative; like Latin.
And the Vocabulary? Little of words which we know have apparently common previous history with the Latin. yes, Gaulish is a celtic language too, and the correspondence with the other Celtic languages proves it, but the Gaul would be more an intermediary between the Gaelic and the Romanic groups.
Words:
1. cintus, cintuxos (Welsh cynt "before, in front", Breton kent "in front", Old Irish céta, Modern Irish céad "first")
2. allos (Welsh ail, Breton eil, OIr aile 'other', Modern Irish eile)
3. tritios (Welsh trydydd, Breton trede, OIr treide, Modern Irish treas)
4. petuarios (Welsh pedwerydd, Breton pevare, OIr cethramad)
5. pinpetos (Welsh pumed, Breton pempet, OIr cóiced)
6. suexos (maybe mistaken for suextos, Welsh chweched, Breton c'hwec'hved, OIr seissed)
7. sextametos (Welsh seithfed, Breton seizhved, OIr sechtmad)
8. oxtumetos (Welsh wythfed, Breton eizhved, OIr ochtmad)
9. nametos (Welsh nawfed, Breton naved, OIr nómad)
10. decametos, decometos (Welsh degfed, Breton degvet, OIr dechmad, Celtiberian dekametam)
We conclude the resemblance with the other gaelic languages, but with latin too: The ordinal numerals in Latin are prímus (gaulish cintus), secundus/alter (allos), tertius (tritios), quártus (petuarios), quíntus (pinpetos), sextus (suexos), septimus (sextametos), octávus (oxtumetos), nónus (nametos), decimus (decametos), why that? The indo-european origins certainly.
“The ancient Gaulish language was closer to Latin than modern Gaelic languages are to modern Romance languages..”
Gaulish Sentences:
Ratin briuatiom frontu tarbetisonios ie(i)uru
"F.T. dedicated the board of the bridge."
sioxt-i albanos panna(s) extra tuð(on) CCC
"A. added them, vessels beyond the allotment (in the amount of) 300."
to-me-declai obalda natina .
O., (their) dear daughter, set me up."
atom teuoxtonion
"The border of gods and men."
toutious Namausatis
"citizen of Nîmes"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaulish_language
I think that: The Gallia's Latin which became French, inherited with the time unique peculiarities: Nasalisation, appearance of vowels, etc., but it would not came from the Gaul.
What do you think of it?
Contrary to many opinions on the Gaulish, it wasn’t an apparently unpronounceable and very cacophonous language in writing as the celtic Welsh or some Germanic languages.
Niente! The Gaulish is a language which looks like the Latin, still Greek or something like that.As Gaulish was quite similar to Latin it was quickly assimilated as early as the last centuries B.C. within this very large language area. Popular Latin borrowed many words from Gaulish. Their language system is what is called "Classical Celtic": it was very close to the Italic group of tongues, and Julius Caesar even had to write his letters to his legates in Greek for Gaulish leaders not to be able to read them if they might happen to gain hold of these missives. He did so because Latin could be understood by Celts quite well without having had to study it.
Example, the word “king” between Gaulish and Latin is quasi-similar latin “rex”, Gaulish “rix” (the name of Vercingetorix the unique united Gallia chief means “ver-…-rix”= over-king, “Cingetos” warriors= The highest king of Warriors.
Phonologically, the Gaulish language looked like almost completely to Latin.
• Vowels:
o short: a, e, i, o u
o long: ā, ē, ī, (ō), ū
o diphthongs: ai, ei, oi, au, eu, ou
• Semivowels: w (“v” pronounced /w/ as Latin), y
• Occlusives:
o voiceless: p, t, k
o voiced: b, d, g
• Resonants
o nasals: m, n
o liquids r, l
• Sibilant: s
• Affricate: ts
Grammatically too, Gaulish has many noun cases: Nominative, Vocative, Accusative, Genitive, Dative, Instrumental, and Locative; like Latin.
And the Vocabulary? Little of words which we know have apparently common previous history with the Latin. yes, Gaulish is a celtic language too, and the correspondence with the other Celtic languages proves it, but the Gaul would be more an intermediary between the Gaelic and the Romanic groups.
Words:
1. cintus, cintuxos (Welsh cynt "before, in front", Breton kent "in front", Old Irish céta, Modern Irish céad "first")
2. allos (Welsh ail, Breton eil, OIr aile 'other', Modern Irish eile)
3. tritios (Welsh trydydd, Breton trede, OIr treide, Modern Irish treas)
4. petuarios (Welsh pedwerydd, Breton pevare, OIr cethramad)
5. pinpetos (Welsh pumed, Breton pempet, OIr cóiced)
6. suexos (maybe mistaken for suextos, Welsh chweched, Breton c'hwec'hved, OIr seissed)
7. sextametos (Welsh seithfed, Breton seizhved, OIr sechtmad)
8. oxtumetos (Welsh wythfed, Breton eizhved, OIr ochtmad)
9. nametos (Welsh nawfed, Breton naved, OIr nómad)
10. decametos, decometos (Welsh degfed, Breton degvet, OIr dechmad, Celtiberian dekametam)
We conclude the resemblance with the other gaelic languages, but with latin too: The ordinal numerals in Latin are prímus (gaulish cintus), secundus/alter (allos), tertius (tritios), quártus (petuarios), quíntus (pinpetos), sextus (suexos), septimus (sextametos), octávus (oxtumetos), nónus (nametos), decimus (decametos), why that? The indo-european origins certainly.
“The ancient Gaulish language was closer to Latin than modern Gaelic languages are to modern Romance languages..”
Gaulish Sentences:
Ratin briuatiom frontu tarbetisonios ie(i)uru
"F.T. dedicated the board of the bridge."
sioxt-i albanos panna(s) extra tuð(on) CCC
"A. added them, vessels beyond the allotment (in the amount of) 300."
to-me-declai obalda natina .
O., (their) dear daughter, set me up."
atom teuoxtonion
"The border of gods and men."
toutious Namausatis
"citizen of Nîmes"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaulish_language
I think that: The Gallia's Latin which became French, inherited with the time unique peculiarities: Nasalisation, appearance of vowels, etc., but it would not came from the Gaul.
What do you think of it?